Rebirth of the God-level Xueba

Tu Xian pedaled his bicycle very fast, shouting "Let me go", and rushed into the courtyard where the Department of Chemical Engineering of Beijing Iron and Steel Institute was hung.

A few joking students with books between them hurriedly occupied the two sides, watched as Tu Xian raced back to the office area, got out of the car with a difficult stride, and ran into the office.

"What's the matter?" The students passing by were full of curiosity.

Tu Xian himself was even more curious.

He was holding a letter in his hand, the envelope was wider than the fat man's face, the front was full of tadpole scripts, and the edges were still wet with the sweat of Tu Xian's palms.

It is impossible not to be nervous. Although this is Tu Xian's fifth paper in his life, it is the first time he has written it in English and tried to publish it in a foreign journal.

"Biochemical Systems Ecology", a standard indexed journal.

Tu Xian believes that in this part of Beijing, there will still be school teachers who don't know what they are. But he is sure that within a few years, it will become a high evaluation standard for the level of papers in the scientific community.

This is an inevitable trend of development. Similar citation standards are also being developed in China, and the lead is the Beijing Library. However, compared with the American Institute of Scientific Information itself and the accumulation established in 1961, it is not easy to keep up with others, let alone replace them. Easy. Countries all over the world have citation databases and scientific citation indexes. Some countries have started to do so since the 1960s and 1970s, but they have not surpassed them so far. You can imagine the heavy barriers.

Of course, it does not create papers itself, it is just included papers and journals.

The vast majority of researchers just hope to put their papers in a valuable journal.

For example, "Biochemical System Ecology", in Tu Xian's view, is a high-end journal in chemistry and biology. Compared with it, the related Chinese journals of the same period are weak like snails. After all, these publications have been suspended for several years , and some periodicals that have been out of publication for more than ten years are still as fragile as babies.

It will not be until 20 years later that there will be good journals on the world stage.

In China in 1983, the only way for a researcher to enter the world stage was to write English papers.

Tu Xian did so, and hoped to become the first teacher of the school to publish a paper in a foreign biological journal.

Beijing Iron and Steel Institute is a traditional metallurgical institute. It was established in the 1950s by merging the metallurgical majors of six universities including Tsinghua University.

With the progress of the times, Beijing Iron and Steel Institute is also actively expanding, and it is imperative to establish a special biology department.

Tu Xian himself likes creatures, and coming to Beijing Iron and Steel Academy is also the result of passive assignment. Therefore, when he heard that there would be a biology major in the future, he was also very happy and devoted himself to doing experiments all day long.

In this regard, the school has also given support. They want to change the name of the school to "Beijing University of Science and Technology". Naturally, there must be a full range of science and technology majors. The school teachers expand the scope of research, which is most in line with this direction.

Tu Xian's level is also very good. The first few papers have been published in domestic high-end journals. He is regarded as the best among young lecturers. With his undergraduate diploma, if all goes well, he will be able to be an associate professor in at most two years. .

Of course, whether it can be rated or not depends on various soft and hard strengths.

A paper published in a foreign journal will definitely bring the best opportunities for this major during this period.

Changed to the metallurgy major in Beijing Iron and Steel Institute,

If you want to evaluate an associate professor, publishing articles in foreign journals is the basic requirement, and only three or five articles can be published to make people look high. Even the Department of Chemical Engineering where Tu Xian is currently working has more than a dozen papers published in foreign journals. After all, this is Beijing, the capital of China, the center of politics, culture and science and technology.

However, the biology major that has not yet been established in the Iron and Steel Institute is different. There are only a few people who switch to biology, but none of them have published papers in foreign journals. There are always a lot of discounts for those who are ahead.

Tu Xian rubbed his hands, and silently recited "Blessings of Gods and Buddhas all over the sky" in his heart. He just tore open the envelope and read it impatiently.

Tu Xian didn't read it in the mail room, because he was worried that the result would be bad, or that he would lose his composure.

Hiding in his own laboratory and office, Tu Xian can express to his heart's content, whether it's excitement or disappointment, or a prayer posture.

The brief letter was all in English, and Tu Xian stumbled to read it, and then saw the comments of two reviewers:

Modify the text!

Although the opinions of the two reviewers are consistent, their evaluations are quite different. One of the reviewers simply stated his judgment, while the other spoke eloquently for a long time, pointing out several major misstatements in his paper.

Tu Xian let out a long breath, and sat down on the chair, only to realize that his back was soaked.

"It didn't pass right away, and it's good to revise the text..." Tu Xian smiled, and then became a little worried in a flash.

His English level is very mediocre, and he had already asked someone for help to write it like this. If he wants to revise it, he has to find someone else again, which means he owes him another big favor.

"If you owe it, you owe it." Tu Xian gritted his teeth, folded the letter and stuffed it into his briefcase, picked up his bicycle and headed to the small shop when he went out.

When he arrived at the place, Tu Xian took out all the money he had on him, a total of eight yuan and six cents, bought two cans of luncheon meat, and the remaining money was just enough to buy two catties of pastries.

Tu Xian carefully selected the cakes with complete shapes, watched the female owner of the small shop neatly tie them up with hemp paper and hemp rope, then took out the cloth bag for buying vegetables and put them in, before riding to the Go to the family building.

Nowadays, when visiting relatives and friends, one or two catties of pastries is a very valuable gift. Under normal circumstances, even if you don’t empty your hands, you can bring a few cents of apples.

Canned meat is only brought when you ask someone to do errands. Canned braised pork with pure meat is too expensive and not affordable, so Tu Xian bought luncheon meat, which was a big loss.

Two minutes later, Tu Xian parked the car in the carport of the family area, carrying the cloth bag by himself, with a smile on his face, walked through the small garden, came to the door No. 35, and slammed the door lock.

"Here we come." The sound of a child running came immediately, and when the door opened, he saw a boy with tall legs, looking eagerly at Tu Xian and the cloth bag in his hand.

"Is Professor Lu here?" Tu Xian touched the child's head and handed him a piece of candy.

The boy nodded vigorously and said, "Grandpa is at home."

"Lead me there, will you?" Tu Xian bent over and smiled.

Professor Lu is a retired professor of the Iron and Steel Institute who once studied abroad. Because of his poor health, he was not rehired after retirement, but instead became a translator. His translated works included not only metallurgical textbooks, but also literary works. He was recognized as a master of English by the Iron and Steel Institute.

The only ones Tu Xian could ask for help were retired professors like Professor Lu. Other teachers had their own jobs, and they were so busy that they didn't have time to sleep.

Of course, Tu Xian was not the only one who asked Professor Lu to revise the text. Entering the living room, he saw another familiar face and said hello. Both of them looked down at the books they carried with them.

Time is precious, how can it be wasted in meaningless chats.

Publishing high-level papers is a rigid requirement of the superiors for the university, and it is also a rigid requirement for the classrooms of the university. How foreign scientific circles view the level of the Chinese scientific community is also based on the level and quantity of papers published by Chinese scholars. As far as China's current state is concerned, the so-called high-level papers must be published in foreign journals.

Half of the teachers in Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel who want to publish their papers abroad, but their own English skills are not enough, will come to Professor Lu, and people from other schools often appear, and Tu Xian has met colleagues here more than once.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, one person came out of the study room inside, thanked them with a smile, nodded to the two, and went out.

The middle-aged teacher who came in front quickly got up and smiled at the same time, saying, "Professor Lu, I'm here again."

"Come in." Professor Lu's voice was hoarse and he didn't show up.

Tu Xian raised his head, then waited outside with peace of mind.

This time, he waited for half an hour before he was able to enter.

Professor Lu still smiled and said, "Come in." His thin body was sitting behind a large old-fashioned desk, his bald forehead was blocked by the desk lamp, and from the door, it looked like he was wearing a feather.

"Professor Lu, I have some language problems. After much deliberation, I can only find you." Tu Xian put the cloth bag on the chest of drawers at the entrance. There are already two bags of things there, probably left by the person in front .

Tu Xian thought for a while, but did not take out the contents of the bag. He sat in front of the desk, put down the document bag, took out the letter from "Biochemical System Ecology" and pushed it to Professor Lu, saying: "This is the letter from the journal, saying that I want to revise the text. "

"Oh, let me take a look." After Professor Lu retired, he sat at home and worked every day. He usually helped people change things during the day and translated manuscripts in his free time. He was extremely busy. His family persuaded him several times to see him Persist, and follow him.

The reply was very short, and Professor Lu read it after scanning it.

Out of responsibility, he read it one more time, nodded and said: "Xiao Tu, congratulations, this article seems to be published."

"Yes, it's just how to change the writing, I have no idea."

"Did you bring the original manuscript of the thesis?"

"Bring it."

"Okay, you come to my side, I'll tell you..." Professor Lu took the manuscript and looked it over, found a red pen from the pen holder, and started to draw.

Tu Xian read and wrote down, earnestly like a student.

Tu Xian's original manuscript was more than a thousand characters long. Professor Lu helped to correct some, and explained the rest, so Tu Xian sat on the sidelines and revised it himself.

Professor Lu saw that his correction was smooth, so he picked up the return letter from the journal and read it.

After a while, Professor Lu suddenly said with a smile on his face: "I guess, this second reviewer is also Chinese."

"Huh? Why?"

"Look at the grammar, although it seems to be quite similar, but the idiomatic usage is British and the grammar is American, which means that you are not from an English-speaking country. If you look at the paragraph structure, isn't it smooth?" Professor Lu perennial As an interpreter and with students, I took on the tone of an investigation.

Tu Xian nodded slowly and said, "It's pretty smooth."

Professor Lu laughed and said, "You think it's smooth because the structure of the paragraph is in Chinese style. Foreigners' writing is not so smooth. So, the second reviewer is probably a Chinese."

Tu Xian was stunned for a moment, then smiled, and said, "I didn't expect it, it fell into my own hands, no wonder his comments were written in such detail."

"Well, the review is very serious. However, it doesn't have to be from our mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan compatriots may also be. If you want to know, just ask. Although they are mutually anonymous, the journal Biochemical System Ecology, There should not be many reviewers in Asia.”

He does not mean that. Professor Lu just said it casually, but Tu Xian remembered it in his heart.

He fought alone in the Iron and Steel Academy, and when he needed help from his biology majors, he always went to other schools. Since they are not familiar with people, it seems to be a good choice to chat with a reviewer of a high-end journal.